iShares Amsterdam t-boned VX40...

The Omani cat gets a puncture from BT...
Funniest part of the video is the interview with Loick Peyron.
Might go there this afternoon and take some pics...


Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/dschickler/

So...who is the skipper on BT, and did they do penalty turns or retire as well? I'm still not clear on exactly what happened, it sounded like Oman was on starboard coming into A mark and BT was on port, tried to duck but then he said they got a puff..."and he was caught out." ?? Could BT not duck -more- because of the puff or did BT misjudge the closure rate due to the sudden acceleration of Omani in the puff?

That's a sick sound.
Sounded and looked like they couldn't turn down anymore because of a bulkhead , when they sped up it left them no where to go.

As an experiment I shot a video with the GoPro3 but without the waterproof housing, IMHO the quality looks better then I expected.
You really get a feel for how small that basin really is.

If you click on the video it takes you to widescreen view.

Video looks fine. That is a small basin. . . what were they thinking?

What do you mean, what were they thinking? It is what we ALL should be thinking if we want sailing to become more visible and popular. Problem is that nobody wants to race in small areas like that with buildings all around to make the wind all fluky. The sailors want their regattas way out from shore where they have clear wind and where NOBODY CAN SEE THEM.

I just noticed that while editing the file (remove a few seconds) I enlarged it from 250mb to nearly 8GB(!).
Now it makes sense why uploading took all night. LOL
Will upload the proper version later today.

pgp: The basin is very small but also very exciting, think about how cool it looks to have such a powerfull machine fly a hull only a few meters from the dock.

Great! You sail your 40 footer there.

This tight quarter in-your-face sailing is the whole premise of the iShares series.

If you want to get sailing more popular than NASCAR, you gotta throw in some crashes.....

Sorry Jake, but that's what separates the men from the boys!

As for me I hate close quarters sailing which translates to: "googa-gaga"!

Just remember there is nothing new in this format. The boats however are getting bigger.

http://www.tropheeclairefontaine.com/English/The-concept.html

Cheshirecatman

Huh? I'm confused. I like the idea of close quarters sailing.

Hard to argue with the success of this series: I watched the iShares Kiel (Germany) event recap on Sunsports TV last week (30 minutes long!), and they were reporting something like 60,000-80,000 on-shore spectators.....and here is a quote from the Ishares cup website regarding the Amsterdam event:
" The best breeze of the day filled in for the final three races today producing some extreme racing - close calls, collisions, penalties and a final double-points race decider - keeping the 10,000 strong crowd entertained on the IJ-Haven."

Sorry Jake, my bad. Had you confused with Pete for a minute there! (I guess I really need a flame suit now!)

I thought that might be the case! I wanted to make sure there was a line of distinction there!